After almost a year of “neglect,” I finally got around to filling in the gaps of my basement
window tile piece this morning. A few tiles had gone “missing” from the weather, school kids
or some neighborhood ne’er-do-wells… whatever. They are all now zip-tied back in place.

Window full once again.
Finally.

Tonight was the opening of Sarah Chapman’s Trunk Show at Lillstreet Art Center.
Stunning work as always. Click on her name in the LINKS section of my blog to see more
of her metalsmithing work. As always, her work was meticulous & inspired. Such great
design & craftsmanship throighout her collection. However…

The piece that really caught my interest was her new “tile” wall piece!
Squares of textured pieces of metal showcasing several different methods, textures and
finishes. All connected with jump rings so it can hang on the wall like a “tile” tapestry!
Here’s just a small section of the wall hanging. Love it…

And no wonder… it does look somewhat familiar to me.
Kinda like a section of my own textured tiled wall?!

Hot, hot, hot… So today it’s been tap-dancing right around 100-degrees outside…
and not much better inside?! Maybe not the best day to be staining, varnishing
and gluing together more tiles “Clay Quilts”???

But if they’re going to be ready for this weekend’s art fair in Hinsdale…
I’ve got to keep plugging along regardless of the heat index!!!
I’m surrounded with fumes & fans… textures & tiles… sweaty & smelly…

Today I did some grocery shopping for party snacks. And then have been making
“ClayQuilts” all day – hoping to finish them and have ’em all dry by the weekend.
Tiles, tiles, tiles. Hundreds of tiles!!!

As I was running in & out today, trying to get out on my bike to enjoy the beautiful
Indian Summer weather, I turned quickly and noticed this dramatic shadow cast across
some new “ClayQuilt” tile boards I recently finished. Amazing what a little light can do…

I spent the evening tonight gluing tiles together to make more of my “ClayQuilts.”
May sound easy… but the tiles slip & slide before the dry. So it’s a constant game
of trying to realign them into a nice grid before the adhesive dries! Let alone the design
& placement of the tiles. I work hard to make it look easy. I like to call it “forced random.”
Trying hard to “force the illusion” of random tile placement. Which is by no means random!!!

After spending the morning working in the garden trying to some quick weeding, pruning
and perennial-splitting done… I touched up my basement tile window! Again…

The basement windows of my condo have a metal security grid attached to the exterior.
Rather unsightly. But when you attach a few tiles to the grid… suddenly, it’s a work of art!

Unfortunately, a few of the tiles have a tendency to “disappear.” I guess that’s part of the game
when you do outdoor “public art.” You want to make it for everyone to enjoy, but not everyone
respects it of what it is. Art. So, I’ve attached them to the metal security grid with black,
plastic zip-ties. But somehow, every once in a while, a tile or two… or three… or seven…
show up missing. No broken pieces? No snipped zip-ties pieces? Not sure where they head
off to. But in my mind I’ve “decided” that they are chosen by some of the Catholic school kids
down the street who LOVED it so much that they had to have a piece of it for themselves.
Somehow, that makes me feel better. So that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Tonight I’ve been working on “stitching together” some more of my “ClayQuilts.”
Small, soda-fired, textured tiles that are put together as a work of art for your wall.
And what appears to be random, is anything but. I find it interesting every time,
how much effort goes into making it look random while it is all very controlled.
Can’t have too many similar tiles in one area, need to keep colors dispersed evenly,
and I sometimes try to create “thematic” color combinations as I go!

Tomorrow, I’ll look at them again with fresh eyes, make a few alterations,
and start gluing them in place. Again, “forced random” as I like to put it.

Remember… before the soda firing, they were just a lot of textured clay squares
with a bunch of different colored & flashing slips on them for different effects.

Natural inspiration?
Here’s a little know botanical fact and a good “word for the day”… espalier.
That’s the term for when trees are pruned & “trained” to grow along walls
in groovy geometric shapes like these at the Botanic Garden entrance.
Which kind of reminded me of my tile installation on my back porch?!!!

It’s a simple installation of glazed tiles on what used to be a plain, boarded up & painted black
piece of plywood from days gone by, when we assume there used to be a window there?!
Each tile has a hole at the top corner and then hung on a nail. It’s really fun when you run
your hands along the tiles and they all swing a bit.

Not quite “inspired” today, and I thought I needed more “kiln filler”… so I made tiles.
This batch is drying and will go into my bisque kiln this Thursday night.
After the bisque firing, they will be soda-fired where the different textures
and slip colors will be accentuated by the soda kiln atmosphere. Once fired, the tiles
will be assembled into my “Clay Quilts” just in time for the upcoming art fair season!